Common Causes launches with cross-Canada actions

As Parliament resumed Monday, Canadians were out in the streets -- in the rain, the snow and the cold -- to show solidarity with Idle No More and to build new alliances in the effort to defeat the agenda of the governing Conservatives.

"Stephen Harper's Canada does not reflect the values that Canadians share," said Paul Moist, National President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, explaining his union's support of Common Causes. "Working people have an alternative vision, one where all people, our collective wealth and the environment are respected. We can build an economy in Canada that works for all."

In many cities Common Causes supporters joined the crowds at local Idle No More round dances, rallies and marches. In Halifax, nearly 500 people turned out for an Idle No More march to Citadel Hill. In Vancouver, hundreds gathered outside the downtown offices of Aboriginal Affairs, after marching from the Native Education Centre.

In Kelowna, B.C., more than 200 protested outside the Joint Review Panel hearings for the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. In Saskatoon, 100 people attended a public meeting to launch Common Causes, before joining an Idle No More march to City Hall. The London, Ontario Common Causes action took the form of a protest outside the office of London North Centre Conservative MP Susan Truppe.

Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, and other Common Causes supporters joined the Idle No More march and rally on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. "The time has come for Canada-wide coordinated action against the Harper government's agenda, which is fundamentally changing our society and our country," explained Barlow, describing the motivation for the new assembly.

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Stephen Harper has an agenda and it is all about turning Canada into a resource-extraction economy. He would like to make sure that nothing and no one stands in the way of exploiting the oil and the gas, the minerals and the water.